After the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics was announced in March, Japan’s men’s national basketball team had hoped to use the extra time to further its development and preparation.

The ongoing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has thrown a wrench in those plans.

The Akatsuki Five recently held their first training camp in nine months at Tokyo’s National Training Center. The camp had originally been scheduled as part of the team’s preparation for the second window of the FIBA Asian Cup qualifiers this month, before some of those games, including contests in Group B where Japan is competing, were canceled due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases around the world.